Nature Photography - in the Spanish Pyrenees

An 8-day holiday offering a chance to learn and practise your photography skills in a spectacular Pyrenean setting offering a wealth of birds, wild flowers and insect-life as subjects.

8 days from£1495(inc flights)Land Only Price: £1385SRS: £150

The valleys, foothills and high mountain peaks of the Spanish Pyrenees form the backdrop to this holiday focusing on wildlife photography. Suitable for beginners and intermediates, local professional photographer Sergio Padura will help wean you off the ‘AUTO’ setting on your camera and explore themes of exposure, picture composition and other essentials of photography. He’ll provide a mix of formal classroom-based tuition and a chance to practise these new skills amongst the superb scenery and wildlife near our delightful base in the hilltop village of Berdún in the Aragonese Pyrenees. Birds, flowers and butterflies abound and nearby locations such as the Biniés Gorge and Hecho Valley provide unforgettable landscapes for us to capture on camera.

Understand your camera – depth of field, light, filters & more

Micro, macro, landscape & night time shoots

Learn from our expert photographer & tour leader

Walk amongst the spectacular scenery of the Spanish Pyrenees

Encounter birds, butterflies & alpine flowers galore

Wallcreeper, Lammergeier & Chamois among the many wildlife highlights

Enjoy delicious picnics in flower-filled meadows

Food

All included in the price.

Accommodation

A charming guesthouse situated beneath the pretty hilltop village of Berdun. All rooms have private facilities except for two singles.

Day 2/7 A programme of photography tuition and daily excursions to photograph scenery, birds, insect-life and wild flowers from our base in Berdún.

Day 8 Fly Stansted

The scenery of the Spanish Pyrenees has a pleasing grandeur and provides a setting that attracts many visitors each year, but, with photography as our focus on this 8-day holiday to rural Aragón we’ll view the region’s stunning cliffs, canyons and limestone erosions with a more artistic eye than the general tourist. Aimed at beginners and intermediates, you will have a chance to hone your wildlife and landscape photography skills in a beautiful and unspoilt setting, with breathtaking Pyrenean scenery as a backdrop to your shots. The comfortable base for our activities is a delightful 300-year-old property situated in the pretty hilltop village of Berdún which enjoys fine views of the Pyrenees, surrounding foothills, and valleys of the Veral and Aragón Rivers. Our friendly hosts will make us most welcome, keeping us well fed on local cuisine, while our tutor will be experienced local photographer Sergio Padura. Sergio fine-tuned his artistic appreciation with a B.A. in Art History at the University of Barcelona, as well as completing a 5-year course at the Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia. Now based in the Aragonese Pyrenees, he has travelled widely, and works as a professional photographer in a variety of different sectors from architecture to landscape. He has an open, friendly manner and an excellent understanding of how to help people make the most of their potential as a photographer — whatever level they start at. This tour is designed for those who want to learn more about the basics of photography and who also have a keen interest in nature. Advances in technology mean many of us now own digital SLR cameras. If you have become accustomed to setting the dial to ‘AUTO’, and have forgotten or are only dimly aware of such concepts as focal length, aperture and shutter speed, but have the kit and are keen to learn (or remember) how to use it, this holiday offers such an opportunity! Sergio will teach you the basics, and more depending on how fast you progress, then head straight off outside to help you practise your new skills, with the natural beauty of the setting providing the backdrop of scenery, birds, plants and butterflies that will be the subjects of the holiday.

On arrival at our 17th century guesthouse, after a short flight to Zaragoza, we’ll have an introductory slideshow followed by dinner. Each day we’ll make excursions to locations within an hour’s drive for the photography course — to the high Pyrenees and foothills, rounding off each evening with a debrief of the ‘day’s work’ and analysis of everyone’s pictures. We’ll aim to include a few early morning starts to catch the best light, as well as making one evening shoot of the stars. During the week, in the field and back at our guesthouse, Sergio will help you understand your camera and how to achieve the best results from it, starting with finding your way around the camera’s controls and picture composition. Attention will also be paid to depth of field, choice of lens and understanding exposure, as well as editing and printing. The emphasis will be firmly on helping you to look upon your work with a critical but constructive eye and learning to appreciate the effect your choice of camera settings has on the finished print.

During our stay, we will explore the area around Berdún, where the Aragón and Veral Valleys and the spectacular Biniés Gorge are home to an excellent variety of low-level birds and plants. While Lammergeier, Golden Eagle, Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles, Ortolan Buntings and Egyptian Vultures are among the bird species we are likely to see in the area, we’ll tend to focus on photographing rather easier-to-capture subjects such as Rock Sparrows and Griffon Vultures. We will visit the beautiful Hecho Valley, enjoying the displays of flowers and their attendant butterflies, and there is even a chance of the elusive Wallcreeper here though we’ll need some patience to try and photograph one! The photographers who are keen to capture shots of wild flowers in our party will additionally find carpets of gentians and Pyrenean Buttercups in the valley bottom, as well as numerous saxifrages and other rock-dwelling plants on the scree slopes above.

The Pyrenees is an accessibly exotic location offering great scenery, good weather and a wide variety of birds, animals, flowers and insects. Sergio will help you to be ready when that split-second opportunity arises to get a shot of a Lammergeier overhead, but it will most likely be the spectacular scenery and wealth of insects, flowers and birds that linger long in your memory and photographs!

C.T.September 2014

Peter and Melanie Rich are excellent hosts and Sergio Padura has a gift for teaching, delivered in almost perfect English. His knowledge of the local area is excellent.

B.H.September 2014

The trips were well organised, not rushed, and the instructor, Sergio Padura, very well qualified and patient. The fact that we were in one location (hotel) for the trip duration was much better than moving to different locations.

J.C.London

Richard Cash was excellent - breadth and depth of knowledge of the wildlife, botany, local history and customs etc.

J.B.Oxfordshire

It was much appreciated that Sergio managed to arrange village visits, including a small and interesting museum, and Hecho. I found his explanations and tuition well-structured and easy to follow; he was always helpful and went out of his way to ensure that we saw wonderful things and places to photograph.

Mr P.Fife

The very welcoming and homely surroundings provided by Peter and Melanie Rich were more than could have been expected of such a trip and their informative responses to queries together with the provision of excellent accomodation and meals (the lunch time picnics were especially good) were a particularly enjoyable aspect of the trip ..... Sergio's lectures and choices of photographic locations were much appreciated and we were rewarded with good sightings of wildlife (in stunning locations).

M.G.Lincolnshire

The photographic course was great, the accomodation was excellent - could'nt be faulted and the guides were great.

S.T.Berkshire

I had a fabulous holiday and would not hesitate to recommend Naturetrek as a holiday company.

M.B.North Yorkshire

Both leaders were excellent - very patient with us all, and I learned a great deal.

J.M.Essex

We had a superb holiday, the photographer was brilliant. Beautiful area to stay and very good food.

T.M.Essex

An excellent well run holiday with very good leaders. The photography course was very good with comments on individual work very helpful and encouraging. I learnt a lot from this holiday and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in wildlife and photography.

R.W.Huddersfield

The flexible itinerary and knowledge of the local guide ensured that the trip was a success for all. Accommodation and food were superb.